Scottish Executive

Access for People with Disabilities

Mr Rob Gibson (Highlands and Islands) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to use disability discrimination legislation to improve access to housing options for disabled people.

Ms Margaret Curran: I have asked Angiolina Foster, Acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland to respond. Her response is as follows:

  Communities Scotland has provided funding to Ownership Options in Scotland to develop a DIY Personal Housing Planning and Evaluation Kit as a housing option self-assessment tool for disabled people or families including a disabled person. This will ensure that people receive an individual, high-quality assessment of their housing requirements and formulate a plan to realise them. This will be available on their housing options website by the end of this month.

  In addition, the Scottish Executive is funding the Scottish Accessible Information Forum that aims to improve access to information for disabled people. This includes information on housing options.

Ambulance Service

Mr Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to upgrade the Wick ambulance services to 24 hours coverage and eliminate on-call working arrangements.

Malcolm Chisholm: The conversion of ambulance stations from part-time to full-time working is an operational matter for the Scottish Ambulance Service. Factors which will inform the service’s decision include information about patient care benefits, expected performance improvements, legal requirements, competing priorities and availability of resources.

  I understand that the general manager of the service’s North and West Division wrote to you on 8 September about the review of service provision in Wick that has been initiated. This review will inform the service’s plans for future developments in the area.

Autism

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many vacancies there are in the area of autism within the NHS, broken down by NHS board.

Malcolm Chisholm: Patients diagnosed with autism will receive their care from a variety of health care professionals in a variety of NHS settings. In general, these staff will cover a range of patients, not specifically those diagnosed with autism. Centrally held data on vacancies is available for medical and dental consultants, nurses and allied health professionals but does not identify the number of vacancies specifically for the treatment of autism. However, the Executive has asked NHS boards and local authorities to develop services for people with autistic spectrum disorder (ASD) in line with the recommendations of the Public Health Institute of Scotland Autistic Spectrum Disorder Needs Assessment Report published in 2002. This should help them to identify the required resources.

Care of Elderly People

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1802 by Mr Tom McCabe on 27 August 2003, how much each local authority spent on care for elderly people from 1997-98 until 2001-02.

Mr Tom McCabe: The following table shows net revenue expenditure on older people per local authority area, for the years 1997-98 to 2001-02. The figures are taken from the Local Financial Return (LFR) (Social Work) and are therefore not comparable with the provisional outturn and budget estimates information used to answer question S2W-1802 on 27 August 2003.

  Net Revenue Expenditure1 (£000)

  

 Social Work Older People2
 1997-98
 1998-99
 1999-2000
 2000-01
 2001-02


 Scotland
 246,286
 263,949
 302,662
 293,548
 316,130


 Aberdeen City
 4,667
 3,253
 13,418
 13,412
 14,643


 Aberdeenshire
 8,500
 10,796
 11,717
 12,619
 13,219


 Angus
 7,305
 8,175
 7,967
 6,919
 8,019


 Argyll and Bute
 5,807
 5,252
 5,056
 6,297
 7,119


 Clackmannanshire
 1,181
 1,873
 2,938
 1,889
 2,623


 Dumfries and Galloway 
 8,189
 8,020
 8,583
 7,941
 7,857


 Dundee City
 9,470
 9,183
 8,666
 8,941
 9,152


 East Ayrshire
 5,556
 5,696
 5,526
 5,684
 6,008


 East Dunbartonshire
 480
 591
 541
 836
 643


 East Lothian
 4,409
 5,127
 4,934
 4,491
 4,751


 East Renfrewshire
 3,263
 3,642
 4,482
 4,759
 5,535


 Edinburgh, City of
 18,134
 16,260
 16,218
 17,497
 19,380


 Eilean Siar
 3,365
 3,721
 3,852
 3,842
 4,094


 Falkirk
 5,037
 9,431
 9,363
 9,380
 10,606


 Fife
 16,299
 18,484
 18,842
 18,766
 20,361


 Glasgow, City of3
 43,333
 44,964
 60,634
 44,959
 46,835


 Highland
 9,824
 13,391
 16,064
 17,764
 17,895


 Inverclyde
 4,100
 4,663
 5,034
 5,025
 5,547


 Midlothian
 3,645
 3,116
 3,654
 3,878
 3,826


 Moray
 4,891
 4,352
 4,952
 5,707
 5,056


 North Ayrshire
 5,296
 5,707
 6,173
 6,408
 7,526


 North Lanarkshire
 16,385
 16,879
 18,610
 20,463
 21,541


 Orkney Islands
 1,623
 1,853
 2,037
 2,081
 2,288


 Perth and Kinross
 6,728
 5,952
 7,500
 7,056
 8,003


 Renfrewshire
 8,841
 9,366
 8,564
 10,240
 10,731


 Scottish Borders
 5,862
 6,367
 5,931
 5,750
 6,080


 Shetland Islands
 1,228
 1,321
 1,192
 1,525
 2,147


 South Ayrshire
 5,388
 6,736
 8,068
 7,952
 8,793


 South Lanarkshire
 12,467
 13,402
 13,489
 13,908
 16,630


 Stirling
 2,794
 3,156
 3,570
 3,697
 2,974


 West Dunbartonshire
 6,233
 7,049
 7,516
 7,295
 8,361


 West Lothian
 6,231
 6,213
 6,767
 6,207
 8,274



  Source: As reported by local authorities on LFR3 (Social Work) returns to the Executive.

  Notes:

  1. Net revenue expenditure is expenditure met from council tax, non-domestic rates and revenue support grant.

  2. Support Service costs and Revenue Contributions to Capital are apportioned notionally, pro rata to expenditure on operating costs.

  3. Glasgow’s increase in expenditure in 1999-2000 was due to a change in the authority’s recording practices.

Children with Special Needs

Fergus Ewing (Inverness East, Nairn and Lochaber) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide assistance to Highland Council and other funding partners to ensure the renewal of the service provided by the Family Association for Children with Special Needs at the Bada-guish Centre at Glenmore and what steps it will take to ensure that children with special needs will have the opportunity to enjoy outdoor activities, such as canoeing, mountain biking, climbing and organised games, within the Badenoch and Strathspey area.

Mr Frank McAveety: This is a matter for Highland Council and any funding partners.

Citizens Advice Bureaux

Mary Scanlon (Highlands and Islands) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will provide additional funding for Citizens Advice Bureaux to enable them to cope with any additional advice required as a result of legislation.

Mr Jim Wallace: Funding for Citizens Advice Bureaux is a matter for local authorities who are best placed to decide on the allocation of resources according to the needs of their particular areas.

Community Wardens

Mr Bruce McFee (West of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual costs of neighbourhood wardens are and how many such wardens there are, broken down by local authority area.

Ms Margaret Curran: The Scottish Executive’s funding programme to extend Community Wardens across Scotland does not come into operation until April 2004. The Executive currently funds the warden scheme in Renfrewshire, through the Better Neighbourhood Services Fund. Excluding start-up costs, the scheme is estimated to cost approximately £260,000 per annum, and employs 17 staff (16 wardens plus one support worker).

Dentistry

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it will extend the current NHS dentists’ "golden hello" scheme to include EU registered dentists who are willing to work in Scotland.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Scottish Executive continues to evaluate the impact of this scheme. There are no plans to include EU dentists at this time, but we will continue to keep all options under review.

Dentistry

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the (a) mean and (b) median distance is that NHS patients have to travel to visit their dentist.

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how many general dental practitioners who provide general dental services to the public provide services to (a) NHS patients only, (b) private patients only and (c) both NHS and private patients, broken down by NHS board area.

Mr Tom McCabe: This information is not held centrally.

Education

Tricia Marwick (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive how much funding (a) it and (b) any other organisation contributes to the anti-bullying network based at Moray House School of Education.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive is the sole funder of the anti-bullying network based at Moray House School of Education. In financial year 2003-04, the network will receive grant-funding of up to £126,051 from the Executive.

Education

Tricia Marwick (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the costs are of the anti-bullying network based at Moray House School of Education, broken down into staffing, conferences, publicity and accommodation costs.

Peter Peacock: The projected costs of the anti-bullying network (ABN) based at Moray House School of Education for financial year 2003-04 are as follows:

  

 ABN Component
 Cost (£)


 Core staffing (salaries)
 £69,151


 Casual support
 £4,000


 Recruitment costs
 £3,000


 Conferences
 £1,500


 Publicity (including publications 
  production, distribution and web development)
 £16,000



  Accommodation costs are met within the overhead charged by the University of Edinburgh, for which the ABN has secured a 4% reduction this year, down to 46% of the staffing costs (£31,809.46).

  The remainder of the Scottish Executive grant-funding of up to £126,051 for 2003-04 is accounted for by general administration and telephone costs, travel and subsistence and training and development.

Education

Tricia Marwick (Mid Scotland and Fife) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what targets have been set to reduce bullying in schools and what monitoring takes place to ascertain whether these targets are being met.

Peter Peacock: The Scottish Executive does not currently set targets for the reduction of bullying in schools.

  The Executive receives authorities’ progress reports on their work towards implementation of the 36 recommendations of the Discipline Task Group. The recommendations provide for schools to review all aspects of their behaviour policy and practice.

Holyrood Project

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-975 by Mr Jack McConnell on 3 July 2003, whether any difficulties have been encountered by Lord Fraser of Carmylie in undertaking his responsibilities pertaining to the inquiry into the Holyrood Building project and, if so, what such difficulties were and how they were resolved.

Mr Jack McConnell: We are unaware of Lord Fraser having experienced any difficulties.

Housing

Mike Rumbles (West Aberdeenshire and Kincardine) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive how many housing association houses for rent have been built in each of the last three years, broken down by local authority area.

Ms Margaret Curran: I have asked Angiolina Foster, acting Chief Executive of Communities Scotland, to respond. Her response is as follows:

  Details of the number of housing association units built for rent is given in the following table.

  Housing Association Houses Built for Rent Between 2000-01 and 2002-03

  

 Local Authority
 2000-01
 2001-02
 2002-03


 Aberdeenshire 
  38 
  183 
  160 


 Angus 
  131 
  36 
  107 


 Argyll and Bute 
  134 
  65 
  - 


 City of Aberdeen 
  87 
  142 
  77 


 City of Dundee 
  130 
  309 
  91 


 City of Edinburgh 
  407 
  509 
  291 


 City of Glasgow 
  1,374 
  1,309 
  1,136 


 Clackmannanshire 
  16 
  44 
  28 


 Dumfries and Galloway 
  52 
  178 
  60 


 East Ayrshire 
  13 
  60 
  36 


 East Dunbartonshire 
  16 
  39 
  - 


 East Lothian 
  46 
  27 
  4 


 East Renfrewshire 
  30 
  41 
  30 


 Falkirk 
  32 
  45 
  81 


 Fife 
  127 
  182 
  157 


 Highland 
  134 
  143 
  148 


 Inverclyde 
  127 
  101 
  88 


 Midlothian 
  28 
  - 
  33 


 Moray 
  22 
  - 
  26 


 North Ayrshire 
  91 
  8 
  76 


 North Lanarkshire 
  184 
  186 
  245 


 Orkney 
  14 
  35 
  23 


 Perth and Kinross 
  169 
  152 
  112 


 Renfrewshire 
  214 
  173 
  186 


 Shetland 
  2 
  16 
  13 


 South Ayrshire 
  61 
  64 
  163 


 South Lanarkshire 
  101 
  138 
  234 


 Stirling 
  59 
  29 
  78 


 The Scottish Borders 
  100 
  62 
  58 


 West Dunbartonshire 
  170 
  146 
  34 


 Western Isles 
  39 
  20 
  14 


 West Lothian 
  61 
  128 
  50 


 Total 
  4,209 
  4,570 
  3,839

Maternity Services

Mr Jamie Stone (Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what discussions it has had with NHS Highland regarding any downgrading of maternity services in Wick.

Malcolm Chisholm: My department has recently completed its annual review of performance with NHS Highland and a summary of that discussion has been made public. It is, of course, for NHS Highland to determine the pattern of maternity services in Wick. I expect the board to take account of national guidance and to involve the local population in decision taking at an early stage. The quality and safety of the service provided will be a prime consideration for the board.

NHS Hospitals

Scott Barrie (Dunfermline West) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what recent discussions it has had with NHS Fife regarding the "Right for Fife" process, with particular regard to the future configuration of acute hospital services within Fife.

Malcolm Chisholm: Officials in the Scottish Executive Health Department have regular discussions with NHS Fife on a wide range of issues, including the "Right for Fife" process and the proposed future configuration of acute hospital services.

NHS Staff

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what plans it has to facilitate the reporting by staff of any bad practice and issues of staff failure in the NHS.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Partnership Information Network (PIN) issued a PIN Guideline prepared by the service for the service in January last year entitled "Dealing with Employee Concerns".

  This guideline promotes a range of options by which employee concerns in their widest sense can be addressed. Through the guideline, employees are encouraged to use available internal mechanisms for reporting any illegal activity, misconduct or omissions relating to any aspects of the organisation's work, whether clinical or non-clinical.

NHS Staff

Mrs Nanette Milne (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive whether it plans to encourage NHS boards to issue whistle-blowing kits to NHS trusts.

Malcolm Chisholm: The Partnership Information Network (PIN) issued a PIN Guideline prepared by the service for the service in January last year entitled "Dealing with Employee Concerns".

  This partnership prepared document includes guidance and a model freedom of speech policy. NHSScotland employers are required to meet or exceed the guideline. It is intended to review the PIN Guidelines every two years to ensure they keep pace with recognised good employment practice.

Planning

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what very special circumstances would overrule the general presumption against intrusion into designated green belt land, as referred to in Scottish Development Department Circular 24/1985, Development in the Countryside and Green Belts .

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what very special circumstances would allow construction of a stadium in a green belt area, as referred to in National Planning Policy Guideline 11, Sport, Physical Recreation and Open Space .

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive whether City of Edinburgh Council and Midlothian Council will be required to demonstrate that they have had regard to paragraph 72 of National  Planning Policy Guideline 11,  Sport, Physical Recreation and Open Space before making a planning decision on a new football stadium at Straiton.

Mrs Mary Mulligan: Planning decisions are required to be taken in accordance with the development plan unless material considerations indicate otherwise. Scottish Executive planning policies contained in Circulars, National Planning Policy Guidelines and Scottish Planning Policies may be such material considerations.

  It is for the decision-maker to assess both the weight to be attached to material considerations and whether individually or together they are sufficient to outweigh the provisions of the development plan.

Renewable Energy

Mr Kenny MacAskill (Lothians) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what representations it has made to the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) regarding proposed UK legislation on offshore renewable energy and what impact such legislation will have on the energy sector in Scotland.

Lewis Macdonald: The Scottish Executive is in regular contact with the UK Government on a wide range of issues, including offshore renewable energy. We are currently discussing with the DTI how best to ensure that any future legislation does not place an additional burden on developers.

Roads

Stewart Stevenson (Banff and Buchan) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what rules or regulations there are concerning the creation of footpaths when a new road is built and, in particular, whether there are any specific circumstances whereby footpaths must be created.

Nicol Stephen: Powers enabling roads authorities to create footpaths and footways are set out in the Roads (Scotland) Act 1984 and the Town and Country Planning (Scotland) Acts. Decisions on the provision of both footpaths and footways are taken on a scheme-by-scheme basis, based on the demonstrated demand. Where a new road severs an existing footpath or right of way, the roads authority would consult users on how best to mitigate the effects of this.

  For trunk roads, general guidance and construction standards are set out in the Design Manual for Roads and Bridges. For local roads, the manual is commended to local authorities, or they may adopt their own standards and guidance.

Special Educational Needs

Carolyn Leckie (Central Scotland) (SSP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1447 by Euan Robson on 6 August 2003, whether any of the increased funding for local authorities to meet the costs of educating children with additional support needs in mainstream schools has been diverted from other special needs education budgets and, if so, how much has been diverted, and what the total special needs education budgets have been in each year since 1998-99, broken down by local authority.

Peter Peacock: The Executive’s increased funding to support the costs of children with additional support needs in mainstream schools is new money.

  I refer the member to the answer given to question S2W-2364 today, for information on local authority net expenditure on special educational needs since 1998-99. All answers to written parliamentary questions are available on the Parliament's website, the search facility for which can be found at http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/webapp/wa.search..

Special Educational Needs

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-537 by Peter Peacock on 18 June 2003, whether it will consider funding special educational needs centrally if the costs of a young person's additional needs exceed any agreed national total and, if so, whether it will develop appropriate systems to allow for applications for a review of such funding by a relevant local authority, the Executive or a representative of the young person.

Peter Peacock: We have no plans to change the current funding arrangements for special educational needs.

Special Educational Needs

Christine Grahame (South of Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive what the annual cost to local authorities has been of special educational needs funding for each of the last five years, broken down by local authority area.

Peter Peacock: Information on local authority net expenditure on special educational needs is available for the period 1997-98 to 2001-02. This information is provided in the table.

  Total Net Expenditure1 on Special Education 1997-98 to 2001-02

  

  
 1997-98
(£000)
 1998-99
(£000)
 1999-2000
(£000)
 2000-01
(£000)
 2001-02
(£000)


 Scotland
 179,640
 194,066
 219,236
 235,800
 258,304


 Aberdeen City
 7,910
 8,479
 9,172
 9,678
 10,555


 Aberdeenshire
 8,668
 9,873
 11,230
 11,978
 13,402


 Angus
 3,070
 3,533
 3,850
 3,885
 4,011


 Argyll and Bute
 1,996
 1,853
 3,134
 3,351
 4,034


 Clackmannanshire
 2,367
 2,454
 2,528
 2,997
 3,277


 Dumfries and Galloway
 7,897
 8,366
 8,819
 9,022
 9,608


 Dundee City
 6,727
 7,848
 8,215
 8,316
 9,450


 East Ayrshire
 4,393
 4,519
 4,678
 6,308
 6,666


 East Dunbartonshire
 2,639
 3,095
 3,682
 3,872
 4,564


 East Lothian
 2,058
 2,343
 2,835
 2,388
 2,022


 East Renfrewshire
 3,039
 2,721
 2,823
 3,176
 3,195


 Edinburgh City
 11,209
 12,275
 13,427
 14,518
 16,502


 Eilean Siar
 1,301
 1,534
 1,775
 1,863
 2,169


 Falkirk
 6,161
 6,994
 8,897
 10,933
 11,308


 Fife
 16,299
 14,898
 21,103
 17,965
 18,269


 Glasgow City
 23,291
 26,982
 29,096
 33,058
 36,478


 Highland
 10,289
 11,457
 12,678
 14,201
 16,112


 Inverclyde
 2,387
 2,577
 2,963
 2,905
 2,731


 Midlothian
 3,077
 3,226
 3,607
 3,356
 3,780


 Moray
 3,854
 4,148
 4,352
 5,078
 5,595


 North Ayrshire
 3,782
 4,182
 4,546
 5,059
 5,233


 North Lanarkshire
 11,137
 11,663
 13,754
 15,040
 16,451


 Orkney Islands
 1,024
 910
 1,073
 1,114
 1,247


 Perth and Kinross
 3,427
 3,144
 3,594
 4,121
 4,308


 Renfrewshire
 4,420
 4,756
 5,525
 5,843
 6,642


 Scottish Borders
 3,378
 3,860
 4,616
 5,426
 6,100


 Shetland Islands
 626
 1,505
 1,556
 1,763
 2,461


 South Ayrshire
 2,339
 2,321
 2,458
 2,637
 2,182


 South Lanarkshire
 10,718
 11,037
 11,286
 12,614
 14,930


 Stirling
 3,120
 3,182
 2,721
 3,729
 4,340


 West Dunbartonshire
 2,621
 3,447
 3,801
 3,799
 4,559


 West Lothian
 4,416
 4,884
 5,439
 5,806
 6,122



  Source: As reported by local authorities on the Statistical Return LFR 1 for Education.

  Note:

  1. Revenue contributions to capital and support services costs have been apportioned across each service area, relative to expenditure on operating costs. This has been done individually for each authority, with the Scotland total representing the sum of all 32 authorities.

Sport

Mr David Davidson (North East Scotland) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive what input its Health Department is making to the initiative to improve access to sporting facilities for all; whether any part of the department's budget will be allocated to that initiative, and when there will be a reduction in demand on the NHS as a result of the initiative.

Mr Tom McCabe: The Health Improvement Challenge recognises physical inactivity as a major risk factor affecting health and is focussing efforts through the implementation of the Physical Activity Strategy to improving access for everyone to all forms of activity, including sport. Between 2003 and 2006, £173 million from the Health Improvement budget will be distributed across the Executive to support the Health Improvement Challenge as a whole.

  The National Physical Activity Co-ordinator is based within the Health Department and is working with sportscotland (and other bodies) to ensure that access to sporting facilities is achieved in a manner that will improve health and reduce inactivity.

  The Physical Activity Strategy aims to increase the level of activity across the whole population by an average of 1% per year, over a 20-year period.

Sport

Mr Brian Monteith (Mid Scotland and Fife) (Con): To ask the Scottish Executive, further to the answer to question S2W-1809 by Mr Frank McAveety on 27 August 2003, what budget has been agreed for the National and Regional Facilities Strategy up to 2006, broken down by financial year, and whether there was any underspend on the strategy's budget for 2002-03.

Mr Frank McAveety: The Scottish Executive has a budget of £28.8 million from 2003-04 to 2005-06 to help develop Scotland’s National and Regional Sports Facilities.

  As the Facilities Strategy started in 2003-04 there was no underspend for 2002-03.

  The following table provides a breakdown for each financial year:

  

 2003-04
 2004-05
 2005-06


 £1 million
 £6 million
 £21.8 million

Traffic

Mike Pringle (Edinburgh South) (LD): To ask the Scottish Executive what the current level of traffic is on the A720; what the average peak hourly flow of traffic is on the road; what its capacity is, and when it is projected to reach that capacity.

Nicol Stephen: Traffic volumes vary at different locations along the A720. The highest annual average daily flow of traffic on the A720 in 2002 was at Dreghorn and was 67,940 vehicles per day (34,310 eastbound and 33,628 westbound). The highest average am peak-hour flow was westbound at 3,190 vehicles per hour. The highest average pm peak-hour flow was eastbound at 3,367 vehicles per hour.

  There is no absolute measure of capacity for any given road. However, research indicates that a road such as the A720 should be able to carry between 3,500 and 4,000 vehicles per hour in one direction before traffic flow is disrupted.

Voluntary Sector

Chris Ballance (South of Scotland) (Green): To ask the Scottish Executive how it plans to support student volunteering in the higher education sector and which organisation will be responsible for overseeing such support.

Ms Margaret Curran: The Scottish Executive has asked Volunteer Development Scotland to carry out a fundamental review of the Millennium Volunteers programme, which will include examination of the future of volunteering programmes aimed at all young people including students. The Scottish Executive has also established a working group to develop proposals for a scheme, provisionally called Scotscorps, to encourage young people to volunteer during a gap year. Volunteer Development Scotland and the Scotscorps working group will make recommendations to the Scottish Executive by the end of the year.

Waste Water

Susan Deacon (Edinburgh East and Musselburgh) (Lab): To ask the Scottish Executive what proportion of the Scottish Water £1.8 billion investment package, announced on 2 September 2003, will be used to tackle odour emissions at waste water treatment units.

Ross Finnie: I have asked Dr Jon Hargreaves, Chief Executive of Scottish Water to respond. His response is as follows:

  It is not practicable to provide an overall figure for investment in odour control measures, as this funding is not identified separately in our investment programme but contained within the budgets of individual projects and the Scotland-wide maintenance budget, which covers a wide variety of investment.

Water Fluoridation

Alex Neil (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Scottish Executive when it will publish its response to the consultation process on the fluoridation of water.

Malcolm Chisholm: Submissions from more than 1,300 individuals or organisations, and almost as many postcards, and petitions were received in response to our consultation document Towards Better Oral Health in Children . Independent researchers were appointed to collate and analyse the responses, and their report, which is nearing completion, will be made available shortly, as will our response to it.

Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body

Parliamentary Staff

Linda Fabiani (Central Scotland) (SNP): To ask the Presiding Officer what proportion of staff employed by (a) the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) and (b) MSPs and party central units participate in a company pension scheme.

Mr Duncan McNeil (on behalf of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body): All staff currently employed by the SPCB participate in an occupational pension scheme. There is no occupational pension scheme available to MSPs staff in their employment with Members of the Scottish Parliament.

Parliamentary Staff

David Mundell (South of Scotland) (Con): To ask the Presiding Officer what the policy of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body is on the employment or placement of people with learning difficulties.

Mr Duncan McNeil (on behalf of the Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body): The Scottish Parliamentary Corporate Body (SPCB) does not have a formal policy on the employment of people with learning difficulties. The SPCB recruits on the basis of fair and open competition. However, officials are actively working towards the SPCB becoming a user of the Jobcentre disability symbol Positive about Disabled People to ensure a better representation of disabled candidates, including those with learning difficulties.

  We also consider and accommodate, where possible, requests for work placements for individuals with disabilities, including those with learning difficulties.